Sunday, 13 April 2014

Day 94: Sunshine and smiles

What went well?

Ancient Voices concert went really well. It was the best we'd sung the pieces. After my 10-minute test on Wednesday, that'll be one subject down!

Hung out with my friend afterwards and went for a long walk to the art museum & back. We admired the cherry blossoms there and on campus (and also the squirrels. always squirrels.). It was so energising! And a GLORIOUS day. Again. Sunshine and 27 degrees celsius (Hello, NZ summer!) with a warm breeze.

Crazy selfie

Wind

Sunshine! I look ridiculously happy in this photo.

Got a reply from the guy who gave the talk a couple weeks back about how digital tools can help bootstrap Chinese learning. He gave some really helpful suggestions and kindly offered to help me with the process and invited me to stay in touch! I'm actually pretty excited about this now, and I've realised that it's all about making learning personally meaningful by getting down to the why of why you want to develop a skill, and the specific content that is interesting and useful for you. I'm glad that digital tools can bypass a lot of boring stuff and help me get straight to translating stuff about positive psychology and mindfulness back and forth from Chinese & English. This is another thing I have gained from Penn - just by going to this talk, I got inspired to improve my Chinese - and I had no strong intentions of doing so prior to that! Interconnectedness is an amazing thing. If this didn't happen, then that wouldn't have happened...etc.

Got another 1600 words on the page for my Buddhism paper.

What did I learn?

This choir can pull it together really well. I think in the end, singing is a lot to do with attention. We often made mistakes during rehearsals, but were great in concert, and I think it is to do with the fact that we were all on the ball today.

My level of Chinese has a term - "kitchen Chinese" - "i.e. a good basic mastery of the language and good pronunciation and tones, but just lacking a lot of specialized and "adult" vocabulary".

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What's this blog about?

Hi! I'm Jessie, in my final year of my BA (Psychology) at the University of Melbourne. But before I finish up there, I'm heading off on exchange at the University of Pennsylvania (hence the name of the blog - Daily Pennings, haha) for a semester. So there are two main reasons why this blog exists: For others, and for myself.This blog exists so that my friends and family can see what I'm up to if they're curious. I also hope that it can serve as a resource for other students who are considering an exchange (or a degree) at Penn, in terms of the culture of the school and the US, and the practicalities of being abroad.Essentially, though, this blog will serve as a public journal. I plan to spend just 10 minutes at the end of each day writing a quick, simple summary of the day, including highlights and something I learned. This way, it'll be an accurate reflection of what actually happened on exchange, and it will also encourage me to reflect daily, which to me is important for self-awareness and living consciously, and therefore making the most of the exchange (and life), hopefully.If you find anything here interesting or useful, or if you're curious about anything, please leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you! :)

About Me

I am motivated by the potential for psychological research to generate rigorous, reproducible insights on human flourishing. My research interests fall broadly within two themes: (1) the processes that link personality with well-being, in the moment and across the lifespan, and (2) the motivating effects of moral emotions (e.g., gratitude, compassion, elevation) on prosocial behaviours.